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Here’s a story from my local newspaper, the Calgary Herald, about Chris Daughtry and the Alberta-borne group, Nickelback:
Daughtry, the self-titled debut disc by the rock band named after Chris Daughtry, who was a finalist on TV talent show American Idol, is currently the best selling album of 2007.
It’s true. That baby’s gone triple platinum (three million units sold in the U.S. alone) and it’s still selling like mad. Never a big believer in the whole Idol experience — talk about the complete and utter corporatization of rock! — I had to see what all the hype was about.
Could it be that 27-year-old Daughtry is the black sheep of the Idol world? That he’s a real rocker at heart who just happened to get his foot in the door with this shallow, karaoke-gone-wild Idol dreck and now he’s going to blow our minds with the sincere, animal tuneage he’s kept pent up in his soul?
Actually, Thursday night at Saddledome, opening up for Alberta’s Nickelback, the bald, muscle-shirt wearing heartthrob proved that his rock bark does carry a bite as he threw himself with his guts on the table into one fave after another from his CD.
But is Daughtry’s album exactly what we’d expect from an Idol graduate?
Is this something that a bunch of TV and music biz executives plotted out in a board room, targeting some meticulously charted demographic?
Without a doubt.
Daughtry’s tunes, most of which he co-wrote, are solidly-crafted but they also fit, in a largely generic way, within the tightly programmed confines of contemporary rock radio. There’s little on Daughtry’s disc that stands out as being all that distinctive.
As for his skills as a showman? Well, Daughtry proved he knows how to work an arena, even if his moves were lifted straight from the arena rock text book.
Some might say it’s fitting that the evening’s headliner, Nickelback have taken Daughtry on the road with them. Nickelback are generally regarded as the epitome of the cliched rock radio sound that Daughtry’s been so successfully gunning for. And they are.
Even so, there’s something to be said for the fact that Nickelback wasn’t assembled by suits, but rather, they came together as kids jamming in Hanna garages.
Ultimately, origins don’t mean squat. It’s the strength of the songs that matters, and for all the critical hatred Nickelback receives, I’ve always maintained that frontman Chad Kroeger, despite his calculated approach, has a power for genuinely catchy hooks that can’t be denied.
Formulaic or not, Nickelback’s songs are infinitely stronger than Daughtry’s.
As for the band’s set? Well, if you’ve seen Nickelback any time in the last few years, you’ve pretty much seen last night’s show, flame throwers, fireworks and all. Their power ballads like If Everyone Cared are still way too soppy, but when the band plays it hard, as on Animals and Woke Up This Morning, they’re much heavier than people give them credit for. And they definitely establish a formidable bond with their audience.
As a young gun on the rise, Daughtry is studying bands like Nickelback closely, and given his remarkable sales figures, he must be doing something right. But if he wants to emulate Nickelback’s longevity, he’s still got a way to go.
source: Calgary Herald photo source